How could Hinduism expand beyond India and a few Indonesian islands? I was thinking if Buddhaism never existed then Hinduism could go further but I could be wrong their.
 

spendabuck

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This isn't exactly what you're asking about, but a possible scenario could be Alexander the Great living longer and encouraging the worship of Hindu gods throughout the rest of his empire, as he did with Egyptian and Zoroastrian gods.
 
How could Hinduism expand beyond India and a few Indonesian islands? I was thinking if Buddhaism never existed then Hinduism could go further but I could be wrong their.

It's a bit more complicated than this and it was more than just a few islands.

Actually Hinduism and Buddhism tended to expand together- they weren't historically seen as totally distinct. Most of Indo-China as well as the Malay world was Hindu-Buddhist. Even today places like Thailand have a lot of Hinduism mixed into their Buddhism.

Basically whichever religion was more prominent depended on whichever the local dynasty favoured.

In both Indo-China and the Malay world however, Hinduism for whatever reason tended to recede into folk practice. Malay and Indonesian Islam has historically tended to have a lot of Hindu folk beliefs incorporated, and as I said before in places like Thailand and Cambodia the state religion is Buddhism but with a lot of Hindu folk practice incorporated (for example the Thai monarch is technically an avatar of both Vishnu and Shiva).

As for how it could spread further, trade is the answer. Islam spread peacefully across the Indian ocean littoral due to Arab dominance of trade. If you can let the South Indian maritime states gain the upper hand earlier on they could spread Hindu-Buddhism to Arabia and East Africa.

The trouble is getting that to happen. Economics argues against it. Indian traders went to SE Asia to trade for resources but the west has little they need. It's the reason why the Arabs and later the Europeans had to go East- if you're already sitting on resources there's no incentive to go on expensive and dangerous trading voyages when the people who want to buy will come to you.
 
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@Flocculencio : as I understand it, Hinduism was also the religion of trade through the Gujarati but when Gujarat converted, the trend went toward islamisation instead.

Not just the Gujaratis- especially where the trade to the East was concerned, the Tamil maritime kingdoms were prominently involved.

I'm actually not sure which came first- trade power or conversion.
 
Not just the Gujaratis- especially where the trade to the East was concerned, the Tamil maritime kingdoms were prominently involved.

I'm actually not sure which came first- trade power or conversion.
Well at least regarding the Muslims of the East Indies, there's pretty clear causation beween trade power and conversion.
Muslims merchants go where the situation ss welcoming. Local ruler converts partially as a PR move, religion trickles down.

For Hinduism, I'd expect the same. But to know whether the Gujarati were religious before the were powerful themselves, that's a good question!
 
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